1. Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
2. Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
3. The better angel is a man right fair,
4. The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
5. To win me soon to hell, my female evil,
6. Tempteth my better angel from my side,
7. And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
8. Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
9. And whether that my angel be turned fiend,
10. Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
11. But being both from me, both to each friend,
12. I guess one angel in another's hell:
13. Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
14. Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

A sonnet that is
considered by many to be the key
to understanding Shakespeare's attitude to love. It plays out the old
battle
between spiritual and physical love, a subject which had been the
jousting
field of argument for centuries. The poet seems to ally himself with
the
traditionalists who believed that the nature of woman was such as to
corrupt
pure love. In Platonic terms she was the material dross of which bodies
were made, but the spiritual ideal love was independent of her, and
true
love could really only subsist between males. In terms of Christian
theology,
woman was the devil and was responsible for the fall since she had
tempted
man to eat forbidden fruit. Any form of congress with a woman was
corrupting,
and the ideal life would always be one of chastity and abstention from
sex.
The doctrine was alleviated slightly by devotion to Mary, the Mother of
God, but despite giving birth she was a virgin and worshipped as the
Blessed
Virgin Mary. A mitigation to this view was the reality of life itself,
which
always returned to insist that the majority of men would continue to
desire
women.

The poet here follows
the traditional line that
woman is the female evil, her sexuality being a threat not only to the
poet
who loves her, but also to the pure spirit of love of which his friend
is
the icon. The battle is between heaven and hell, between the spirit and
the body, and the body seems to triumph over the spirit just as it does
in Sonnet 129, and less agonisingly in 151. The net result is that the
poet
is flung into a rage of jealousy and, like Othello, his imagination
runs
riot as he thinks of what the lovers must have done together:
Lie with her? Lie on her? - We say lie on her when they belie her. -
Zounds,
that's fulsome. - Handkerchief - confessions - handkerchief! - To
confess
and be hanged for his labour - first to be hanged, and then confess! I
tremble
at it. Oth.IV.1.36-41.
This is the fevered imagination which guesses one angel in another's
hell
and broods with frenzied misogyny on his sense of betrayal. But one
presumes
it had a less tragic outcome than the Othello story.

There is always some
doubt about the autobiographical
nature of these sonnets, although the majority of readers will
inevitably
take them to be personal accounts of suffering or elation. Even with a
poem
which we know to be based on an Italian or French original, such as
Sidney's
sonnet to sleep:
Come Sleep! O Sleep!. The certain knot of peace! we are reluctant to discount entirely the element of
personal experience
which we feel it portrays. Simply because another poet has already
written
similar thoughts on a subject does not preclude a native poet from
taking
up the theme. And since love is so universal an experience, one should
be
willing to accept that a sincere account of it might be inspired by
another's
similar experience, even in different climes and countries. To a
certain
extent Shakespeare's portrayal of the dark lady as the villain of the
piece,
the one who dirties and corrupts the purity of his love, is similar to
the
reaction to Petrarchism which the continent had experienced, a reaction
which denied that the beloved was a goddess and likened her instead to
a
Medusa, a Gorgon, or to other mythological murderesses. It is not so
far
a jump from that attitude to the one here portrayed, namely that the
beloved
mistress is a Circe who entraps all men and turns them into swine. The
difference
here is that of emphasis, in that the poet focuses on the effect on
himself
as the party in the middle. He loves a woman, but she has betrayed him
like
the worst of trulls. Not only that, but she now seeks to seduce from
him
the lofty and perfect ideal of love which, he is ready to declare,
sustained
his life and made it beautiful. Unfortunately the sense of loss is
distorted
by the jealousy which pervades it, the thwarted desire which is forced
to
concede that the woman no longer wants him, or his body, but she wants
his
companion, and him only perhaps for a time. So that the woman herself
becomes
personified as evil, the bad angel who is on the side of the devil and
is
responsible for all the world's woes.

This may be too
extreme a view, and perhaps readers
would prefer to believe that Shakespeare was writing in his usual mode
of
dramatic fiction, rather than to accept that he was a tortured
misogynist
with leanings to homosexuality. Yet commentators tend to think that
this
sonnet is deadly serious. (See for example HV p.605). I hope my
illustration
at the top of the page might in some way lighten the heaviness, and
although
I cannot offer an alternative interpretation, I think it important to
remember
that the mind can oscillate between extremes, and that a temporary
despair
of human redemption need not be a permanent and lasting feature of
one's
life. Shakespeare's women in most of the later plays were superb
examples
of humanity and few elements of the dark lady can be found in them. In
fact
one might say the same of most of the earlier plays, so that if the
episodes
here depicted were taken from his life we must not despair entirely,
but
take comfort from the fact that he lived through them and still
retained
his idealism.

Below are
shown the Passionate Pilgrim version
of this sonnet, and Drayton's Sonnet 20 from his 'Idea' sequence of
sixty
three sonnets, which has many similarities to this one. I have also
included
sonnets 41 and 42, which are addressed to the youth and probably relate
to the same relationship which is discussed here. They are given at the
bottom of this page.

THE 1609
QUARTO VERSION

144

T

Wo loues I haue of
comfort and
diſpaire,
Which like two ſpirits do ſugieſt me ſtill,

The
better angell is a man right
faire:
The worſer ſpirit a woman collour'd il.
To win me ſoone to hell my femall euill,
Tempteth my better angel from my ſight,
And would corrupt my ſaint to be a diuel:
Wooing his purity with her fowle pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd finde,
Suſpect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I geſſe one angel in an others hel.
Yet this ſhal I nere know but liue in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

DRAYTON
SONNET 20

An evil
Spirit (your Beauty) haunts me still,
Wherewith, alas, I have been long possessed;
Which ceaseth not to attempt me to each ill,
Nor give me once, but one poor minute's rest.
In me it speaks, whether I sleep or wake:
And when by means to drive it out I try,
With greater torments then it me doth take,
And tortures me in most extremity.
Before my face, it lays down my despairs,
And hastes me on unto a sudden death:
Now tempting me, to drown myself in tears;
And then in sighing to give up my breath. Thus am I still provoked to every evil, By this good wicked Spirit, sweet
Angel-Devil.

From
Michael Drayton's sonnet sequence Idea.
This sonnet was published in 1599, the same year as The Passionate
Pilgrim,
a pirated edition of some of Shakespeare's poems. It printed the
version
of Sonnet 144 which is shown below.

THE 1609
QUARTO VERSION

144

T

Wo loues I haue of
comfort and
diſpaire,
Which like two ſpirits do ſugieſt me ſtill,

The
better angell is a man right
faire:
The worſer ſpirit a woman collour'd il.
To win me ſoone to hell my femall euill,
Tempteth my better angel from my ſight,
And would corrupt my ſaint to be a diuel:
Wooing his purity with her fowle pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd finde,
Suſpect I may , yet not directly tell,
But being both from me both to each friend,
I geſe one angel in an others hel.
Yet this ſhal I nere know but liue in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

FROM
THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM (Based
onthe version given in Booth, SB.p.496,
which is taken from the Rollins Variorum edition: A New
Variorum Edition
of Shakespeare The Sonnets, ed. Hyder Edward Rollins, 2
Vols, Philadelphia,
1944. I do not have access to the original PP version, but I presume
that
all the s characters, other than capitals and terminal letters, would
have
been elongated s, as in the Q version.

Two loues I
haue, of Comfort and Despaire,
That like two Spirits, do suggest me still:
My better Angell, is a Man (right faire)
My worser spirite a Woman (colour'd ill.)
To win me soone to hell, my Female euill
Tempteth my better Angell from my side:
And would corrupt my Saint to be a Diuell,
Wooing his purity with her faire pride.
And whether that my Angell be turnde feend,
Suspect I may (yet not directly tell:)
For being both to me: both, to each friend,
I ghesse one Angell in anothers hell: The
truth I shall not know, but
liue in dout, Till
my bad Angell fire my good
one out.

1. Two loves I have of
comfort and despair,

1.
loves = loved ones, beloveds. of comfort and despair = who offer both
comfort and despair. At this
stage, both loves could be giving this mixture of pain and consolation,
although, because of what follows, we automatically interpret it as
saying
that one of them is the comforter, the other the destroyer.
SB points out that comfort and despair are also theological terms,
harmonising
with the theological idioms of the poem. (SB p. 497.n.1). OED gives
'Comforter'
as one of the titles of the Holy Spirit, as for example in Matthew: And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Matt.4.14.16
but the notion of Christ, or God as the comforter was just as common.
As
for example in Psalm 19: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will
fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
me.
A belief in Divine Providence and in the consolation of
religion was
much more widespread then than it is nowadays, and it was almost the
only
protection the majority of people had against disease, famine, and all
the
other disasters which threatened communities.
OED does not give any help with the theological meanings of 'despair'.
The
teaching of the time was that despair of God's mercy was akin to
disbelief
and one of the greatest sins in the Christian catalogue of sin, if not
the
greatest. It was a sin against the Holy Ghost (who might loosely be
equated
with truth), for which no forgiveness was possible. Thus the two
qualities,
comfort and despair, are equivalent to a trust in the Holy Spirit, or a
disbelief in him and his efficacy, tantamount to a tryst with the
devil,
the opposing evil spirit.

2. Which like two spirits do suggest me still:

2. two
spirits = a good spirit, and
an evil spirit, corresponding to a guardian angel and the devil.
Catholic
belief was that each individual had his or her own guardian angel to
protect
him or her. The corresponding evil angel was less of a personal
attachment,
but was more likely to be one of Satan's vast army of spirits which
roamed
the earth always hoping to tempt and lead astray any human whom they
chanced
upon. There is also a reference to the Morality Plays, and the
tradition
of psychomachia (fighting of spirits) in which personified Virtues and
Vices
fought for the control of a man's soul. In Marlowe's Dr. Faustus The
Good
Angel and the Evil Angel try to influence Faustus' actions, the latter
winning
the contest.
G. Ang. Sweet Faustus, leave that execrable art. Faust. Contrition, prayer, repentance - what
of them? G. Ang. Oh, they are means to bring thee unto
heaven. E. Ang. Rather illusions, fruits of lunacy,
That makes men foolish that do trust them most. G. Ang. Sweet Faustus, think of heaven and
heavenly things. E.Ang. No Faustus, think of honour and of
wealth. Fau.452-9.
Spirits were normally invisible, but would on occasion reveal
themselves
to humans.

suggest me
still
= continually tempt me; continually lead me on (to good or evil).

3. The better angel is a man right fair,

3. The
better angel = the better of the
two spirits. Note that 'angel' was a term usually applied only to good
spirits,
creatures who normally inhabited heaven, but had an additional role of
helping
to ensure that things went well on earth. The 'Fallen Angels'were
those who inhabited hell, their leader being Lucifer, but they were
normally
referred to as devils or evil spirits. They were all formerly blessed
angels
in heaven until they revolted. (See Milton's Paradise Lost Bk. 1). right fair = truly beautiful, both physically
and spiritually. Just,
honest, gentle and trustworthy. Probably the same person referred to as
the friend in 133-4, and the youth addressed in the former sequence
1-126.

4. The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.

4. The
worser spirit - note that the
word 'spirit' is used of the woman, in contrast to 'angel' for the man.
Spirits were more often evil than good. a woman coloured ill - the poet's mistress,
the subject of most of
sonnets 127-152. Possibly also the same woman is referred to in 41-2.
The
fact that she is coloured ill is a reference to her dark complexion,
mentioned
in 127, 131and 147, but also to her moral darkness.

5. To win me soon to hell, my female evil

Barley-break. A
Village Sport or Game played
on holidays, especially at Easter.

See bottom of
page for details.

5.To
win me soon to hell = to tempt me
to take the broad and swift road to damnation. soon
= swiftly, without
delay. No doubt also a reference to the hell on earth which he
anticipates
suffering when he loses the 'fair youth'. It is noticeable however that
the theological imagery begins here to break down. The two guardian
spirits
are not tempting or provoking him directly, as is their usual custom,
but
they seem to be attacking each other, for the worse one is tempting the
better one to sin.
Commentators see here a reference to the village pastime of
Barley-Break
of which I give the OED definition: An old country game,
varying in different
parts, but somewhat resembling Prisoner's Bars, originally played by
six
persons (three of each sex) in couples; one couple, being left in a
middle
den termed ‘hell,’ had to catch the others, who were allowed to
separate or ‘break’ when hard pressed, and thus to change partners,
but had when caught to take their turn as catchers. It seems
to have
been a variation on the simple game of tig, but the fact that it was
played
by couples, resulting often in a change of partners, may have allowed
it
to develop into a game of sexual romps as the evening wore on. It is
not
certain that the mere use of the word hell is proof
that Shakespeare
was alluding to this game, although the fact that it was described by
Sidney
in his Arcadia, and that its alternative name was
'Last-in-Hell'
may be significant. KDJ thinks that references to the lower part of the
stage in the theatre, or to part of the old law courts at Westminster,
or
to a debtor's prison, are all just as probable. (KDJ p.404). I am not
aware
that the custom of Barley-Break survives anywhere in England now, and
it
probably died out in the 19th century. Further details are given at the
bottom of this page. The sexual connotation of 'hell' as female
genitalia
does not seem to be activated until line 12.

6. Tempteth my better angel from my side,

6. Tempteth
= tempts, seduces. side - this is the PP reading accepted by most
editors as preferable
to Q's sight (see above, adjacent to the Q
version). A guardian angel
usually hovered close to the person protected. KDJ cites the following
from
Othello:
........did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn,
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobation. Oth.V.2.207-10.
Possibly also a reference to being in bed with, as the following
indicate:
For never shall you lie by Portia's side
With an unquiet soul. MV.III.2.307-8.

So then two
bosoms and a single troth.
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. MND.II.2.50-2.

The phrase is
ageless, and Dylan Thomas in Under
Milk Wood tells us of an old couple: Mr and Mrs Floyd, the cocklers, are sleeping as quiet as
death, side
by wrinkled side...

7. And would corrupt my
saint to be a devil,

7. would
corrupt = wishes to, intends
to corrupt. my saint = my good angel, my beloved.
Addressing one's beloved as
a saint was common in the sonnet tradition, and dates back to Petrarch
and
his Laura.

8. Wooing his purity with her foul pride.

8. Wooing
his purity = tempting his
pure nature, seducing him. The use of 'wooing' is suggestive of the end
in sight, having sex with him. Compare : And when a woman woos, what woman's son
Will sourly leave her till he have prevailed? 41.

foul = ugly,
sinful, morally debased. Note however that the PP version has fair,
evidently intended as ironic.pride = gorgeous finery; swollen self esteem.
It was also the sin
which was especially associated with the devil.

9. And whether that my angel be turned fiend,

9. whether
that = if it is or is not
the case that my angel = my saint, my beloved, my man right
fair. be turned fiend = has become a devil, has been
converted to your
side. The theological imagery continues, the idea being that a good
angel
might be perverted to join the fiends in Hell, and in this case he
does.
It is not very true however to Christian tradition, for, apart from the
first rebellion led by Lucifer, which separated the good from the bad,
the
proud from the obedient and respectful, heavenly angels were considered
to be incorruptible. One should therefore not press too closely the
religious
interpretation, for the meaning is directed more towards earthly Saints
and earthly fiends.

10. Suspect I may, yet not
directly tell;

10. Suspect
I may = I might well be suspicious.
yet not directly tell = yet I cannot be sure
through hard evidence,
yet I cannot immediately be sure. I cannot tell for certain (if he has
become
a fiend).

11. But being both from me,
both to each friend,

11. being
both from me = both of them
being absent, apart from me, separated from me. both to each friend = each being a friend of
the other.

12. I guess one angel in another's hell:

12. I
guess one angel in = I guess, suspect,
that one of the angels is in etc. another's hell = the other one's hell. Hell
here could have its ordinary
spiritual and mortal significance, the place of damnation, the place of
final suffering, but applicable also to various hells on earth. Which
implies
that merely being in the dark lady's company could be a hell on earth.
But
at this stage all the secondary meanings seem to assume primary
importance
as the sexual jealousy reaches a crescendo. ' I think his prick is in
her
cunt when he is with her' is what the poet seems to be saying, for the
frequent
connotation was that 'hell' was the female sexual organ, and the well
known
story of Bocaccio in the Decameron tells how Rustico teaches Alibech
how
to put the devil into hell, i.e. the penis into the vagina. (Decameron
III 10). So that in this line the angel has definitely become
a devil.
Another link is possibly to the game of Barley-Break, details of which
are
given in the note to line 5 above, and in more detail below. Evidently
in
that game being in 'Hell' with someone one fancied was not too bad a
thing
after all.
The equating of hell with the female pudenda, although no doubt a piece
of ancient slang, might well have been given contemporary significance
from
the experience of catching venereal disease in the stews (brothels)
which
were in London, by old tradition situated on the South bank, near the
play
houses. Perhaps Shakespeare was recalling such an experience. KDJ cites
a satire on the Earl of Leicester, News from Heaven and Hell,
in
which Leicester's punishment in hell for his lust on earth is that he
is
joined forever in intercourse with a female fiend: thus was his paradice turned into his purgatory, his
fine furred gape
into a flaming trape, his place of pleasure into a gulfe of vengeance,
and
his pricke of desire into a pillor of fior. KDJ p.404. From
D. C. Peck,
'"News from Heaven and Hell": a defamatory narrative of the Earl
of Leicester', ELR 8 (1978) 141-58.

13. Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in
doubt,

13. this
= whether or not the good angel
has entered hell, or they have become lovers.live in doubt - note that doubt was also a
theological term, allied
to the sin of despair. To doubt or deny the truth was a sin against the
Holy Spirit. The truly despairing man, although he believed in God and
Salvation,
nevertheless doubted its efficacy and came to believe that Christ's
love
and mercy was insufficient to save him.

14. Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

14. A
cluster of ideas is implied by these words.
Fire suggests the flames of hell and the triumph of evil over good. The
bad angel appears to force the good one out into the open, as if he had
been hiding somewhere. It also suggests that she may get rid of him,
drive
him away when she is sated with him. OED.8a. gives the following nearly
contemporary example: 1615 Lust will not usually out of the
soul...till
it be fired out with confession. There is an echo of various
proverbs,
such as One nail drives out another; One love drives out
another etc.
And the metaphor of venereal disease, fire, is once
again invoked, with
the bad angel setting her sexual partner on fire by infecting him.

We
two are last in Hell: what
may we fear
To be tormented, or kept prisoners here:
Alas! if kissing be of plagues the worst,
We'll wish in Hell we had been last and first.

Robert Herrick 1591-1674. From
Hesperides.

........She went abroad
thereby,
A BARLEY-BREAK her sweet swift feet to
try.
* * * * *
Afield they go, where many lookers be,
* * * * *
Then couple three be straight allotted there,
They of both ends the middle two do fly,
The two that in mid place, Hell called, were,
Must strive with waiting foot, and watching eye
To catch of them, and them to hell to bear,
That they, as well as they, Hell may supply:
Like some that seek to salve their blotted name Will others blot, till
all
do taste of shame. There you may see, soon as the middle two
Do coupled, towards either couple make,
They, false and fearful do their hands undo;
Brother his brother, friend doth friend forsake, Heeding himself, cares
not how fellows do,
But if a stranger mutual help doth take;
As perjured cowards in adversity,
With sight of fear, from friends to friends do fly. Sidney Arc.Bk.I.Song
of Lamon.

Love,
Reason, Hate did once
bespeak
Three mates to play at Barley-Break.
Love Folly took; and Reason Fancy:
And Hate consorts with pride, so dance they:
Love coupled last, and so it fell
That Love and Folly were in Hell.

They break; and Love would Reason meet,
But hate was nimbler on her feet;
Fancy looks for Pride, and thither
Hies, and they two hug together;
Yet this new coupling still doth tell
That Love and Folly were in Hell.

The rest do break again, and Pride
Hath now got Reason on her side;
Hate and Fancy meet and stand
Untouched by Love in Folly's hand;
Folly was dull, but Love ran well,
So Love and Folly were in Hell. Suckling 1609-42.

41

Two loves I
have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil,
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turned fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

Those petty
wrongs that liberty commits,
When I am sometime absent from thy heart,
Thy beauty and thy years full well befits,
For still temptation follows where thou art.
Gentle thou art and therefore to be won,
Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed;
And when a woman woos, what woman's son
Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed?
Ay me! but yet thou mightest my seat forbear,
And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth,
Who lead thee in their riot even there
Where thou art forced to break a twofold truth,
Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
Thine, by thy beauty being false to me.
41.

42

Two loves I
have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil,
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turned fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

That thou
hast her, it is not all my grief,
And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;
That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief,
A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye:
Thou dost love her, because thou knowst I love her;
And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross:
But here's the joy; my friend and I are one;
Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.
42.